/**
 * Copyright (C) 2011-2012 Luca Li Greci
 *
 * This file is part of pojo-creator
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package com.pojocreator.provider;

// Identified as unused import by checkstyle.  
//CHECKSTYLE:OFF
import com.pojocreator.provider.number.RandomNumber;
import com.pojocreator.provider.number.SequentialNumber;
import com.pojocreator.provider.string.RandomAlphabetic;
//CHECKSTYLE:ON

/**
 * Interface to expose a common methods to provide data. 
 * 
 * The data can be generated randomly (e.g. {@link RandomAlphabetic}, {@link RandomNumber}) 
 * or sequentially {@link SequentialNumber}
 * 
 * @author Luca Li Greci
 *
 * @param <T> Data type to provide
 */
public interface DataProvider < T > {
   
    /**
     * Return the datatype used
     * 
     * @return datatype used
     */
    Class < T >  type();
    
    /**
     * Return the size of the underly collection 
     * 
     * @return size of the underly collection
     */
    int size();
    
    /**
     * Return a value for a specific provider
     * 
     * @return a value for a specific provider
     */
    T data();
}
